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Karadzic sentenced to prison

On March 24, Radovan Karadzic was found guilty by the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague for committing crimes during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was sentenced to forty years of imprisonment.

You may have heard of a country called Yugoslavia. In 1991, Yugoslavia started splitting up into different countries. Slovenia, Croatia, and Macedonia were the first to break away. In 1992, Bosnia and Herzegovina broke away. What remained of Yugoslavia became two countries in 2006 – Serbia and Montenegro.

There were three main groups living in Bosnia and Herzegovina – the Bosnian Muslims, the Bosnian Serbs, and the Bosnian Croats. A war broke out in the nation in 1992, which lasted for 3 years. Radovan Karadzic, who was the leader of the Bosnian Serbs during this time, was involved in killing many people.

After the war, Karadzic went into hiding. He was considered to be one of the world’s most “wanted men” because he was responsible for numerous crimes committed during the war. He was found 13 years after the war ended in Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia. When he was caught, Karadzic was living a regular life out in the open in Belgrade. He was using a false name and had grown a long white beard. He was practicing alternative medicine, had his own website, was writing in magazines, and was even giving talks! In 2008, after he was captured, Karadzic was taken to The Hague, a city in The Netherlands where the United Nations has an international court. His trial lasted 8 years. He is now 70 years old.